You can download: the March 2018 Mix#3 right hereor get the new April 2018 Mix#4 here.

I first heard CARCAJOU when vocalist Jonathan sent me their demo, as we are friends from his time in Quebec post-hardcore/post-metal/screamo band Nous Étions. I remember liking it but not being wowed. Fast forward a few months (maybe even a year) and I get to play a show with them in Montreal, Quebec (linked here) and I was taken aback. Holy shit, I didn't remember the demo being this fucking amazing. So after gushing to the band how much I loved them, they informed me that they were writing a full length and it'd be out the next year. Firstly, I went back and jammed the first EP, to which I realized I had mixed it up with another band submission cuz that's one sweet demo. Secondly, at the end of 2017 they subtly dropped their six-song LP titled 'Quelle magnifique fin du monde'. But now I'm just getting ahead of myself.

In 2015 CARCAJOU released a digital single by title of "Évasion". The song appears again on the 2016 'Ep.' digital release, which I consider their demo recording mentioned so often above. The EP contains thee tracks and opens with a much better sounding version of "Évasion", with the beautiful intro guitar progression intact. Jonathan's vocal style on this release is very similar to that on Nous Étions releases, that is to say deep, gutteral and just generally on the lower end of things. The post-hardcore continues on "Le Vers d'Oreille", a heavier and more destructive song that is a bit longer and nearly hits the four-minute mark. Closer and perhaps the best CARCAJOU song I've heard follows, as "La Peur" is truly magnificent. At 5:40, it includes an intro guitar riff that I'll cherish until the day I die, fantastically varied vocals with a lot of much higher screaming, an undeniable and constant groove, and fer science's sake it sounds kinda like Daïtro meets Nous Étions.

The followup to the demo is much more fleshed out and complete, as 'Quelle magnifique fin du monde' is truly a full album. That being said, as good as the record is there is no song that gets me sweating like "La Peur" does. Opener "Se battre seul" comes pretty close and is probably my favourite song from the LP. At nearly six minutes it builds initially with a minute of ambient instrumentals and whispered vocals. Relatively typical CARCAJOU follows with a mishmash of so many genres it's not even worth trying. I love the chill, post-rock, instrumental parts, particularly the epic builder in its midsection that leads to cascading climax that is both groovy as fuck and pretty dang heavy. Next up is "Éphémère", also clocking in five minutes and change. It begins not unlike the first, with a slow, post-rock first minute although screams are littered throughout instead of whispers. The guitars get pretty darn playful next, dancing around the frets and eventually lead the song into deeper, darker crevices of post-hardcore/post-metal, all the while retaining a screamo feel. It's those instrumentals...they're pretty goddamn European sounding. "Retrouvez-les tous" follows and is much more aggressive than the first two, opting to bring heat right off the bat instead of building up to it. This makes the song much more jarring, and it jumps around like a malfunctioning teleportation device with a ton of parts, including a bunch of tempo shifts and really sweet injections of jazz. The transition at around 2:30 is great, and Jonathan's clean singing from 2:40 is fanfuckingtastic. Track four is "Quand le naturel revient au galop", an epic jam that follows the ebb and flow of the first two songs while track five's "L'art c'est aussi la guerre" is a mere 2:26 and cuts a gash with its sharp edge and quick attack. Closer "La sirène et l'épouvantail" is nearly five times in length as it nearly makes it to 10 minutes. The track begins its existence through the storytelling of Jonathan and his sole, utterly mesmerizing voice. Seriously, I could listen to him speak French and not understand all day and be at peace. The instruments meet up after the first minute with erratic and spacey instrumentals that explode at 1:45 and then repeatedly contract and expand over the songs tenure. Now, it's probably just me, but the end sounds like the post-hardcore/post-metal version of Conan The Barbarian. No? You're probably right.

Hopefully when they release next it won't be dropped at the end of the year and lost by many in their frantic attempt to create and post an all-too-early Best Of The Year list. CARCAJOU sat at 18 for a week or two before being unseated by Sans Visage and Frail Hands in my list for 2017. Needless to say, I'm excited to see where they go from here.

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